Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Colonel Charles Russell Lowell to John M. Forbes, August 12, 1863

Centreville, Aug. 12, '63.

I am very sorry that the conscription is being made such a farce — somebody must be neglecting his duty shamefully.

I agree with you that we are likely to get more aid from blacks than from conscripts, — States seem to me likely to fall short of their quotas, even when the second class is reached. Might not an impulse be given to recruiting contrabands in territory still recognized as rebel by enlisting State enterprise? For example, let Massachusetts organize a skeleton Brigade (as in case of Colonel Wilde), and for every two thousand men obtained receive credit for one thousand on her quota and take the $300 per man (or any less sum the Government would allow) to pay expenses of getting the two men. I know there are grave objections to such a scheme, but I believe the work of recruiting would go on with far more success.

I feel all that you say about “inglorious warfare,” but it is “all in the day's work,” Mr. Forbes, — and has to be done. You must not exaggerate the danger. Mosby is more keen to plunder than to murder, — he always runs when he can.1 As to insignia of rank, I never encourage my officers to wear any conspicuously, nor do I think most of them are distinguishable at 100 yards. I have my private feeling about the matter, — and if I am to be shot from behind a fence would still rather be in uniform than out of it. I never express this feeling to my officers, however, Mr. Forbes.
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1 A letter of General Lee to General Stuart shows that, before the “Partisan Rangers” had been four months at work, the military advantages to the Confederacy of their keeping a large force around Washington already began to be outweighed by the obvious evils which must result where discipline was lax, and the soldier kept what horses, clothing, arms, and valuables he took. General Lee, writing on August 18, 1863, observes that Mosby seems to have a large number of men, yet to strike with very few; and “his attention seems more directed to the capture of sutlers' wagons, etc., than to the injury of the enemy's communications and outposts. The capture and destruction of wagon-trains is advantageous, but the supply of the Federal Army is carried on by the railroad.  . . . I do not know the cause for undertaking his expeditions with so few men, whether it is from policy, or the difficulty of collecting them. I have heard of his men, among them officers, being in rear of this army, selling captured goods, sutlers' stores, etc. This had better be attended to by others. It has also been reported to me that many deserters from the army had joined him.  . . . If this is true, I am sure it must be without the knowledge of Major Mosby.” {Rebellion Record.)

The official correspondence of General King with headquarters at Washington, and Colonel Lowell's reports, always brief, business-like and conservative, show that August was an active month. Besides Mosby's plundering incursions and picket attacks, he had a new guerrilla foe to deal with in White, as appears in the following extracts from official sources: —

Centreville, Aug. 1, 1863.

Col. J. H. Taylor, Chief Of Staff, Washington, — Colonel Lowell goes to Washington to-day to report, as ordered. He returned from an expedition last night, bringing in about twenty horses captured from Mosby, and all the prisoners taken by Mosby at Fairfax. The gang scattered in all directions, and thus eluded pursuit.

Rufus King, Brigadier-General.

Mosby reports to General Stuart that, on August 11, he captured nineteen wagons, with teams and many stores; also twenty-five prisoners.

On August 12, Colonel Lowell reported to Washington the recent capture of sutlers' trains by Mosby's and White's men, and that he had sent out parties to look for them, and adds:

“I sent in 61 horses on Monday and 55 more to-day, most of them United States horses, some captured, some collected to the northwest of here, and some near Maple Valley.”

August 15. Colonel Lowell advised from Washington to try to find and attack White near Dranesville.

August 20. Colonel Lowell reports his search for guerrillas, lasting two or three days, following up all traces — “could not get a fight out of White” — picked up ten prisoners. Reports that White is seldom with his battalion (about two hundred and fifty strong), but passes about the country with a strong escort. “White is looking up recruits and deserters. He has now six companies, with over 700 men on his rolls, and prisoners say that he expects to take that number with him when he leaves the country.”

August 25. General King reports to Washington that one hundred rebel cavalry attacked a party of the Thirteenth N. Y. Cavalry [this was a part of Colonel Lowell's brigade] and ran off one hundred horses.

August 30. General King reports that a party of infantry and cavalry, sent out to Dranesville, found few guerrillas, but learned that White was at Broad Run enforcing the conscription, and that Mosby had been recently wounded and carried beyond the mountains.

September 3. General Humphreys writes to Colonel Lowell, commanding at Centreville, as to White's movements, and adds, “A Richmond paper of 1st Sept. states that Mosby received two serious wounds in the fight near Fairfax Court House, and has been taken to his father's residence near Amherst.”

SOURCE: Edward Waldo Emerson, Life and Letters of Charles Russell Lowell, p. 295-6, 439-42

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